They say timing is everything, and the timing was excellent for Richard Kent.

The Rutgers alum, lawyer and author decided to focus his latest book on the 2010-11 Big East men’s basketball season. It turned out to be one of the most memorable campaigns in the league’s storied history, with a wild scrum of a regular season leading to a spectacular conference tourney, an unprecedented 11 teams in the Big Dance and, ultimately, a national champion in UConn.

The resulting book, “Big East Confidential,” relives the madness from media day (interesting tidbit: Gene Keady is shocked how many more media members attend this compared to the Big Ten’s media day) to the final net-cutting. It starts with a forward by longtime New York Daily News scribe Dick “Hoops” Weiss and unfolds in a diary-style format over 219 pages.

Most of the entries are short, ranging from one to three pages, and recount the games of the day in matter-of-fact fashion. In between these accounts he files an occasional chapter devoted to a particular topic.

There is a six-page entry on Pitt coach Jamie Dixon—did you know he once went 50 days without eating after suffering a ruptured pancreas while playing overseas?

There are five pages devoted to Tom Odjakjian, who might be the most important administrator most fans have never heard of. A former ESPN executive, Odjakjian does the television scheduling for Big East football and men’s hoops. Lots of interesting nuggets here, like how UConn prefers to play at the XL Center during winter break because the crowds there are far less student-driven.

My favorite chapter, however, is the 12 pages devoted to Big East officials. Kent interviews Big East officiating supervisor (and fellow lawyer) Art Hyland at length. How does someone become a Big East ref? How much do they make? How are they evaluated? What role does technology play? How much does Hyland weigh coaches’ feedback? Lots of insight here. By the way, Kent writes that they make an average of $700 per game.

Kent is a Rutgers alum and booster and extra attention is paid to the Scarlet Knights. A Connecticut resident, Kent also knows the Huskies and Jim Calhoun, which comes in handy.

“Why write this book?” Kent opens his preface with. “Before the season started, I recognized intuitively that there was a tremendous amount of parity in conference and expected that to take hold throughout the season.”

That happened, and so did much more. It’s all there in Big East Confidential.